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Battle ahead as Colorado Democrat John Morse fights gun-based recall

By Lynn BartelsThe Denver Post

Posted:
06/03/2013 05:12:15 PM MDT

Updated:
06/04/2013 08:37:57 AM MDT

The organizers of an effort to recall Colorado Senate President John Morse turned in Monday more than twice the number of signatures required to force a special election, possibly setting the stage for an expensive, national battle over gun control.

If the signatures are determined to be valid and survive a court challenge, it's likely voters in Morse's Senate district will decide at a special election in September whether to oust the Colorado Springs Democrat.

Morse's support of gun-control legislation in the 2013 session as well as his leadership style sparked the recall effort.

"Keeping Coloradans safe from gun violence is very worth your political career," Morse said Monday afternoon in a conference call with reporters. "It's important that we not lose sight about where we are at this juncture."

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He pointed to a shooting at an Aurora movie theater nearly a year ago where 12 people died and the massacre at a Connecticut elementary school in December, where 26 people, including 20 first-graders, were slain.

But Robert Harris, one of three men who filed the recall petition with the secretary of state, said Morse's actions don't represent the will of his district.

"We had many Democrats who came up to our volunteers and told them they had voted for Morse and they needed to rectify that situation by signing the petition," he said.

Morse, who was first elected in 2006 and again in 2010, is term limited after next year.

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Although the law allows Morse to resign if there are enough valid signatures to force an election — and Morse stressed that's a big "if" because of what his camp sees as fraudulent signature gathering —he said he has no intention of doing so.

So far, only four legislative leaders in U.S. history have faced a recall election, and three of them were recalled, said Josh Spivak, who writes a national blog on recalls. No Colorado state lawmaker has ever faced a recall election before, he said.

The NRA already is active in the recall effort, and Morse said he believes he could receive help from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, if there is an election.

"If this ends up on the ballot, I do think it turns into a race of national importance," Morse said.

"The Colorado Springs media's got to be licking its chops at all the advertising it's going to be getting," said political consultant Katy Atkinson of Denver.

Morse's recall was always considered the easiest among the four Democratic lawmakers targeted for recall, mainly because of their gun records. That's because Morse organizers only need about 7,178 valid petition signatures, representing 25 percent of the votes cast in his district in the last election.

Efforts against Rep. Mike McLachlan of Durango and Sen. Evie Hudak of Westminster fell short, while recall signatures for Sen. Angela Giron of Pueblo are due next week.

Rich Coolidge, spokesman for the secretary of state's office, said each signature on the Morse petition must be verified. Although the office has 15 working days to do the work, he expects the results to be announced next week.

Morse then has 15 days to legally challenge the results, but once the secretary of state deems the recall effort successful, then district residents interested in the seat can file candidate affidavits, Coolidge said.

If there is an election, ballots in Morse's Senate district will ask voters whether he should be recalled and, if so, which of a following set of candidates should replace him.

Gov. John Hickenlooper has a certain time frame to set the election date, but Coolidge estimated it likely would be in early September.

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